Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—
The Russian Navy has taken supply of what’s the world’s longest identified submarine, one its maker touts as a analysis vessel – however what others say is a platform for espionage and probably nuclear weapons.
The Belgorod was turned over to the Russian Navy earlier this month in the port of Severodvinsk, in line with the nation’s largest shipbuilder, Sevmash Shipyard.
Experts say its design is a modified model of Russia’s Oscar II class guided-missile submarines, made longer with the purpose to finally accommodate the world’s first nuclear-armed stealth torpedoes and gear for intelligence gathering.
If the Belgorod can efficiently add these new capabilities to the Russian fleet, it could in the subsequent decade set the stage for a return to scenes of the Cold War underneath the ocean, with US and Russian subs monitoring and searching one another in tense face-offs.
At greater than 184 meters (608 ft), the Belgorod is the longest submarine in the ocean at the moment – longer even than the US Navy’s Ohio class ballistic and guided missile submarines, which come in at 171 meters (569 ft).
The Belgorod was floated in 2019 and was anticipated to be delivered to the Russian Navy in 2020 after trials and testing, however these have been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s state-run TASS information company reported. No timeline for the sub’s first deployment was given.
What units the Belgorod aside from any of the nuclear-powered submarines in the Russian fleet – or certainly from any of the nuclear submarines operated wherever in the world – is its mission.
TASS has reported that the sub will carry the in-development Poseidon nuclear-capable torpedoes, that are being designed to be launched from a whole bunch of miles away and to sneak previous coastal defenses by touring alongside the sea ground.
“This nuclear ‘mega torpedo’ is unique in the history of the world,” American submarine professional H. I. Sutton wrote on his Covert Shores website in March.
“Poseidon is a completely new category of weapon. It will reshape naval planning in both Russia and the West, leading to new requirements and new counter-weapons,” Sutton wrote.
Both US and Russian officers have stated the torpedoes could ship warheads of a number of megatons, inflicting radioactive waves that might render swathes of the goal shoreline uninhabitable for many years.
In November 2020, Christopher A. Ford, then assistant secretary of state for worldwide safety and non-proliferation, stated Poseidons are being designed to “inundate US coastal cities with radioactive tsunamis.”
A US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report in April stated Poseidons are meant as retaliatory weapons, designed to hit again at an enemy after a nuclear strike on Russia.
According to the CRS report, the Belgorod can be able to carrying as much as eight Poseidons, although some weapons consultants say its payload is extra more likely to be six torpedoes.
Sutton wrote in 2019 that the Poseidon, which is anticipated to be 2 meters (6.5 ft) in diameter and over 20 meters (65 ft) lengthy, “is the largest torpedo ever developed in any country.”
That’s “thirty times the size of a regular ‘heavyweight’ torpedo,” Sutton wrote.
The CRS reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had touted the Poseidons in a 2018 speech, saying, “They are quiet, highly maneuverable and have hardly any vulnerabilities for the enemy to exploit.”
If armed with typical warheads, the Poseidons could be used towards targets “including aircraft carrier groups, shore fortifications, and infrastructure,” Putin reportedly stated.
But there are doubts about the weapon and whether or not it can finally be added to Russia’s arsenal.
“This is still a technology in development, both the torpedo and the platform,” stated Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.
The Poseidon shouldn’t be anticipated to be prepared for deployment till the second half of this decade, he stated. The CRS stated it didn’t anticipate the Poseidon torpedoes to be deployed till 2027.
And Kristensen factors out that the Belgorod itself is known as a check vessel for the coming Khabarovsk class of nuclear-powered submarines, the first of which could be launched this 12 months.
Then there may be the poor efficiency of the Russian navy in its war on Ukraine, a part of which analysts blame on bad weapons design and corruption which has seen maintenance of Russian military hardware neglected.
“Ukraine is a reminder that Russian advanced weapons are not silver bullets but suffer from reliability issues. There is every reason to believe that an intercontinental-range nuclear-powered torpedo will have its fair share of problems,” Kristensen stated.
But different consultants warning towards any assumption that the sub or the Poseidon torpedoes is probably not what’s marketed.
“Transposing impressions of the Russian ground and tactical air forces to Russian undersea and nuclear forces – in particular, impressions based on watching the execution of a pretty bad plan in Ukraine – could lead to a dangerous underestimation of those Russian strategic forces’ competence and capability,” stated Thomas Shugart, a former US Navy submarine captain and now an analyst at the Center for a New American Security.
“It would be sort of like observing the US’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, and then as a result questioning the ability of its ballistic missile submarines to execute their nuclear mission – a conclusion the US’ adversaries would draw only at their own great peril.”
The Belgorod could also be solely the first in a fleet of 4 submarines that could carry the Poseidon torpedoes, the CRS stated, with two destined for service in Russia’s Pacific Fleet and two in its Northern Fleet.
Sutton, of Covert Shores, wrote in 2020 that the subsequent three Poseidon-armed subs, the aforementioned Khabarovsk class, “are likely to be the defining submarine of the 2020s because they represent a novel and difficult adversary.”
“Other navies are unlikely to emulate it, but they will want to counter it,” Sutton stated of the Khabarovsk class. “The underwater game of cat and mouse where US Navy and (British) Royal Navy hunter-killer submarines stalk the Russians could be reinvigorated. A new Cold War in the Arctic, North Atlantic and North Pacific” could be coming, he wrote.
While the Belgorod could be the future Poseidon check launcher, Sutton stated the submarine would doubtless additionally function as an intelligence gathering platform.
“It will be crewed by the Russian Navy but operated under GUGI, the secretive Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research organization,” and carry a variety of midget submarines and submersibles “to conduct covert special missions,” Sutton wrote.
In a information launch earlier this month, the Russian shipbuilder highlighted the Belgorod’s non-lethal capabilities, saying it opened up “new opportunities for Russia” to conduct “scientific expeditions and rescue operations in the most remote areas of the world ocean.”
